What’s in a name? Or shape?

Objects. Over the years we accumulate objects and they collect meaning and fill our home. The home is the place we create for ourselves — it’s the space that is our reflective, refractive, creative and safe environment filled with pieces from our lives.

It just so happens that the special objects in our apt. include a map and a cutting board.

I was born in New York City but despite my Great Plains name, Dakota is derived from the building on the Upper West Side where John Lennon lived and died, an ode to his spirit. Last summer, AC surprised me with a vintage map of the Dakota territory, dated back to 1886 (Special order from Oslo, Norway. Antique map source: Miklian Antiquarian Maps)

Map of Dakota Territories, 1886

A few months ago, shopping in East Hampton, I stumbled on state shaped cutting boards. My first thought was these are fantastic and my second was that Missouri is incredibly well shaped to hold a cheese platter and ordered one in time for Valentine’s Day from A. Heirloom. To make it truly special, the folk at A. Herloom were even able to engrave a star right on his hometown of Republic.

Cheeseboard in our Brooklyn living room

It’s great fun having friends fill the living room, slicing Comté off of Missouri under a map of my territories.